Correct documentation requires two things:
You need to know that there are other. styles; the correct one for any paper is the one prescribed by the editor or publisher of that individual paper. The English Department at CHS uses the fourth edition of the MLA Handbook.
Purpose of documentation:
To add the authority of the source to your paper
(if you are writing about aliens from space, NASA makes a more credible source than National Enquirer does.)
To enable the reader to find the original sources efficiently
(Internal documentation must give the first word of the entry in the works cited and the works cited must give all the info needed to find the exact source easily.)
To give credit to the original author or researcher
(intellectual honesty, avoid plagiarism, stay out of jail)
Internal documentation cites the source by leading the reader to the works cited page. Therefore it gives the info the reader needs to find the source easily there. Usually this is the last name of the author and the page number. Direct quotes must be written exactly as they appear in the original source. If you need to change or add, put your word in square brackets, if you leave out some words, use an ellipse.
The Star claims, "She (Ms. Scarcello) was really on vacation on Mars... in July" (Smith 6).
If the author’s name is given in the sentence being cited, whether a direct quote or a paraphrase, then just the number is needed.
Some sources like The Star are not credible. Ms. Smith’s claim that Ms. Scarcello vacationed on Mars is clearly untrue (6).
If there is no author given, then you put in the parentheses what will be listed first on the works cited page, which is the title, in place of the author. (‘Mars vacation" 6)
To quote or not to quote, that is the question.
These rules for internal documentation apply to both direct quotes, summaries, and paraphrases. Students should generally put the info in their own words unless the original words are remarkably well written or well known or the information is so startling that only the original words will make it credible. Each line of quotes more than 4 lines long in your paper are indented 10 spaces from the left.
The works cited list gives the rest of the information to enable your reader to find the original source efficiently. To make this page easy to use, alphabetize the entries are by the first word and reverse the indentation; i.e. make the first line stick out to the left 5 spaces instead of in 5 spaces. Titles of articles are put in quotation marks. Titles of complete works are underlined or put in Italics. Every line is double-spaced. The usual one-inch margins should be used on all sides. See samples. Using this internal documentation is called citing the source. Only the works that appear in parenthetical citations in your paper will be listed on the works cited list. Sources read in the process of research but not used in the paper are not listed